Strengthening of the Civic education at schools

Problem

In grades 5-8, civic and citizenship education is integrated in the general curriculum. The topics of civic education include social competence, being patriotic, critical and creative thinking and being an active member of a community. Right now there is no strict rules for the integration: it’s not clear, how many hours or time of a lesion should be addressed for civic education or no specific guidelines how civic education should be integrated. Teachers of all subjects are responsible for the integration of civic education themselves.

There are currently no defined ways in which civic competence and its success should be measured. There is therefore no data on how it is integrated into the curriculum, in which subjects and how often. There is also no research on the problems that teachers encounter in integrating citizenship education into the classroom.

The results of the International Civic and Citizenship Survey (ICCS 2016) show that Lithuania is one of the four countries with the lowest number of teachers, who defined that one of the objectives of civic and citizenship education is to learn about social, political and civil institutions. While the theoretical knowledge of Lithuanian students is quite high – around 70% of Lithuanian students are able to  correctly answer the theoretical questions about the electoral system (EU average: 47%) – more than 70% of students don’t think that their vote can influence decisions or future. Also, according to the Eurobarometer survey, 63% of young people in Lithuania are reluctant to get involved in social activities, compared to the EU average of 44%.

Goal

Identify the key issues in the integration of civic education.

Propose suggestions to strengthen the integration of civic education at schools.

Participants

2022/23

Gintvilė Bagdonavičiūtė

2022/23

Milda Ulozaitė